The Weekly Fare . . . March 10, 2005

Roanoke's "Link" to The Past

I suppose I never knew it as a child, but I am, in many ways, a passionate historian.

In my early years (and some would argue today, as well) I was a sentimentalist who never wanted to part with his "old stuff." I would hoard all manner of treasure in my room, until my Mom or Dad played the role of the "anti-Claus" and cleaned house. I never could tell exactly what was missing, (I had too much stuff to be able to discern) but I usually knew when they had been there. I'm sure my children know as well when Dad has made one his "sweeps."

My five-year-old son Rob is much the same. The other day at a teacher's conference to discuss his progress through kindergarten, Rob's teacher remarked, "You know, Rob is a fabulous student. I just couldn't ask for more - he's bright, he gets along with everyone and simply possesses a heart of gold . . . Now if we could just keep him from digging through the trash can, he'd be absolutely perfect."

"Digging through the trash can?" my wife asked.

I knew where this was going. It turns out that when Rob sees his teacher throwing something away that he perceives as valuable (everything from colorful paper scraps to lists of questions) he retrieves it at the first available opportunity.

"I wondered where all that stuff in his backpack was coming from," the wife added. She threw me a quick glance that indicated she knew exactly whose genes were on display here.

Yup, that's my boy . . . Sweet like his momma - collects junk like his Dad.

In my teens I turned my pension for collecting mementos of my past into a bulletin board that was, in reality, one wall of my bedroom. By the time I left for college it was about eight feet high and twelve feet across and was at least five layers thick in some places . . . Old movie tickets, ski passes, photographs, drink cans, tassels, programs, match books - anything that could serve as a reminder of some event that would otherwise have been forgotten.

Unlike my friend John Walker, who could remember the exact date of virtually any moment of our youth, I needed these prompts to bring back the memories. But my Dad hated it. I believe he saw it as both a fire and a health hazard. Mom must have convinced him to leave it up. At least they could tell where I had been and what I had been up to.

But these days my love of history goes far beyond my own. I don't watch a great deal of TV, but I do enjoy the documentaries on PBS and the History Channel that detail some of the remarkable events in human history that could never be covered in high school and college courses.

Did anyone see the one on WWII British Aircraft designer, Barnes Wallis? Wallis designed a bomb that looked like a giant golf ball complete with dimples. It had to be dropped from 150 feet while spinning backwards at a specified speed so that it could literally skip on the water for thousands of feet like a stone and then reverse spin down the face of a Nazi dam. It was then supposed to explode underwater at a point that would bring down such a structure.

Sounds ridiculous doesn't it?

Indeed, when Barnes first made his proposal he was laughed out of the room by the leading Allied scientists of the time. Now History shows that his wildly creative design was the only workable solution and that it saved thousands of lives by helping bring the war in Europe to a much quicker end. (In one nighttime raid, three dams were wiped out decimating several key German munitions factories.)

To me, that's simply the stuff of fairy tales - and a great example of truth not only being stranger than fiction, but far more interesting. So when a good friend of mine recently sent me a website link to a collection of pictures called simply "Old Roanoke" I was hopeful there might be one or two that I hadn't seen before. Was I in for a shock.

The collection has been assembled by one Twig Gravely and contains so many heretofore-unseen treasures documenting Roanoke's past that it would be impossible to begin to describe them here. (There were over 250 at last count.) I was so impressed with the compilation that I contacted Twig and asked him how he got going on such a project. He responded that not long ago he bumped into a set of old photos that a friend had on display at McVey Hardware. After getting permission to scan them into his computer and sharing them with friends, he learned that they too possessed a great many interesting old photographs.

As his collection grew he kept his eyes open for others and soon discovered that there were many early images of Roanoke being offered on Ebay. He got in the habit of checking availability and purchased them whenever possible. Recently, he added several more that he found in the VA Tech archives. One thing just kept leading to another and, Voila! "Old Roanoke" was born.

I had a couple of reactions to this fine collection, perhaps the strongest of which was the feeling that our local leaders should be required to view it. For there is perhaps no more effective way that we can be reminded of where we come from and how remarkably fortunate we are that Roanoke's early leaders sought to honor our past as they faced the future. The same holds true today - this beautiful valley has its own unique character that, if preserved and kept alive as part of the wonderful quality of life offered here, will serve us well for the next 100 years.

I will, of course, leave you with this fascinating "link to our past." But I must warn you not to click it until you have the time to really dig in - some of the images are truly remarkable, and they have a way of pulling you in . . .

Hats off Twig Gravely! Thanks for making our local history so accessible and alive!

"Old Roanoke" http://members.cox.net/oldroanoke/index.htm